Leos Janacek

*  Jenufa -- Suite
*  The Excursions of Mr. Broucek -- Suite

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra/Peter Breiner
Naxos 8.570555  Total time: 70:20

*  Kat'a Kabanova -- Suite
*  The Makropulos Affair -- Suite.

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra/Peter Breiner
Naxos 8.570556  Total time: 70:31

Summary: Nice.

First, Janacek did not make suites from his operas.  Peter Breiner
arranged these suites.  Some of the items he lifted pretty much whole.
Others he hunted and snipped and pasted.  I've got nothing against such
procedures per se.  After all, it's done with movie soundtrack albums
all the time.  However, I really have to wonder why Breiner did it. 
Whom did he serve?

At one point the answer would have been Janacek himself.  The operas
weren't all that well known beyond Czechoslovakia, after all, and such
suites might well have introduced many to the music, thus leading to
performances and recordings.  However, all the operas here have received
already recordings (still currently available) and a couple have actually
made standard rep.  Broucek and Makropulos, I believe, have even been
done at the Met, that most hidebound of houses.  Consequently, you might
think that these suites now introduce the music-lover to the operas.
Listeners can dip into the music and decide whether they want to go
further.

However, Breiner's suites give you very little idea of the power of the
operas.  At most, I can say that they're well-fashioned and make for a
pleasant listening experience.  But, to take one example, Kat'a Kabanova
is not a pleasant opera, and you miss the tragedy in Breiner's suite.
Breiner fails to catch the eccentricity of Broucek, and I don't see how
he could have done so.  Janacek's operas depend on text and singing
actors as well as the music to make anything near their full effect.  So
I'd take the plunge and buy a complete opera instead.  The Cunning Little
Vixen introduced me to Janacek's operas and hooked me, so that I wanted
to hear as much as I could.  And, by the way, get the operas sung in
Czech, rather than in German or in English.  You will probably understand
nothing without a gloss in front of you, but in general, singing
translations notoriously suck and diminish the poetry of the text.

Other than those caveats, these CDs comprise an afternoon of agreeable
listening.  Breiner and his kiwis do very well.  I've never really
listened to the New Zealand Symphony before, mainly because their
repertoire interested me to the exclusion of their performances.  Now
that they play something that interests me less, I can focus on them: a
lovely string sound and capable of sustaining large spans of music.  I
can't tell how much Breiner has contributed to this, but obviously the
capability lies within the players.  The sound is acceptable without
crossing over into the super-spectacular.

Steve Schwartz

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